Waiting game works for Mathews

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews might have been a worried man after his side managed 296 against Pakistan in the opening game of the Asia Cup for he though that they were about 20 or 25 runs short.

To make matters worse, Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal were in the midst of a great partnership and it looked like the defending champions would reach home with plenty to spare before Lasith Malinga, who snared his sixth five-wicket haul in ODIs, removed the Pakistan skipper at a crucial juncture of the game. At 254/7 in the 45th over, the mercurial team floundered and let victory slip away from their grasp.

"I actually think that we were 25-30 runs short, to be honest. Especially with the start that Sangakkara and Thirimanne got for us, we should have got at least 325, minimum. We lost our way in the middle, we kept losing wickets and we had to consolidate in the last few overs, to set 297 target. I actually thought, if we didn't lose wickets, we could have got 325-330 easily," Mathews said after Sri Lanka held their nerves to secure a 12-run win.

"When Misbah and Umar Akmal were batting, they were batting brilliantly, and we just didn't have answers to them," Mathews said. "We just had to hang in there. We knew that if we take one wicket from there the game is going to open once again, so we did that and fortunately our bowlers did it once again, Lasith Malinga took that crucial wicket, and that turned the game for us."

On the other hand, the Pakistan captain Misbah was crestfallen and he rued the loss of crucial wickets in the death overs of the chase.

"The way Umar and I had a partnership going, if we had just played out the overs the match was easy. Only a wicket could get them back in the game, and that is the mistake we made."

Pakistan have now failed to chase down a total of over 250 since February 2011 but Misbah denied admitting that there was a problem on that front.

"I think there is no problem. We just chased even in the Test match and the effort even today was good. A little bit more, we should have batted the same way, batsmen should have taken a little bit more responsibility and finished the game."